Save Me
by mabelreid
Summary: An encounter in the library one rainy October afternoon draws Reid into a mystery beyond anything he's yet encountered. ReidOFC A Halloween Tale
1. Chapter 1

A/n this is my Halloween story for this year. Please let me know what you think

Disclaimer: see my profile

Thunder cracked over his head and big fat rain drops started falling around him and onto his brown corduroy jacket. The wind ruffled his hair and threw his bangs into his eyes. He quickened his pace to a trot, trailing his messenger bag behind him. The sky was a dark grey and black, with edges of light blue around the storm clouds. A yellow fork of lightening streaked across the sky just as he ran up the concrete steps to the double doors of the grey stone building.

He grabbed the brass door handle and pulled open one of the doors. A tall, thin boy with red hair and lots of freckles passed him and slipped out the other door. A short, plump woman with black hair streaked with grey carried a large stack of books, and was looking out the door as though the weather had personally insulted her.

The large room in front of him held a horseshoe shaped desk near the door. There were three women manning the desk, but only one was busy. She was busy with a very short black woman, with a riot of red blond curls bursting out over her head as though she had been electrocuted.

To his right was a reading area with a round table surrounded by several comfortable looking easy chairs. He went to his right and stepped into the fiction section of the stacks of books. Thunder crashed again and the yellow lights set into the twenty foot ceilings flickered before burning steady again.

He reached the end of the long aisle between the long shelves of books and turned right. He headed to the far end of the big room passing two kids on the way, who were fighting over a children's book. Their mother stormed around one stack and began hissing at them to be quiet, or they were going home.

The last aisle had what he was looking for. If he stood really still he could smell the paper, ink and dust. There was another crash of thunder and the sky split with lightening. Rain was lashing the windows and the drops elongated and ran down the panes.

The light was dim in the corner he retreated to, and under the sound of the storm, he could still hear the screams of the young boys their latest un-sub had tortured and killed. One young boy had been taken just hours before they found the man, or monster, in his lair. The poor boy had been burned with cigarettes and cut with a piece of glass from a broken mirror. He'd been beaten to within an inch of his life. They'd left Iowa not knowing if the kid was going to make it or not.

Reid began to peruse the shelves of books, looking for a specific story his mom used to read to him when he was six years old. He'd spent the entire flight back home with his eyes closed, trying to remember the title of the book. It helped to keep out the pictures of the little blond haired boys and the horrible things Elmer James had done to them.

The rain lashed the windows that curved into the building as though they were trying to get inside and grab the unsuspecting readers, to drag them out into the downpour. The wind had picked up, and Reid looked up to see the half denuded trees and bushes swaying in the wind. Fall had come with a vengeance in 2008. His birthday was in two days and it was a sure thing that he would have to endure another party at the BAU.

Why couldn't his friends understand that he hated birthday parties? Why couldn't they understand that he wanted to be left alone to mark the passing of the years he was given? It didn't matter to him if he was one year older or not? Why was it such an important thing for others?

He went back to searching the shelves for the book. It had to be here. He had checked on line just a half an hour ago. Surely no one had come in for that particular book in the last half hour. It would be too much of a coincidence.

_Come on… think, don't let the case drive everything out of your mind that's good and soothing._

Wait… There was the familiar dark brown spine and gold lettering. Good… he'd sit down until the storm was over and read in a real library. There were more reading tables and chairs against the windows and along the far wall. There wasn't anyone around to stare at him as he read, so - his hand fell on the spine of the book and so did another hand - he leaped back in surprise and the book fell to the floor with a thump.

"I'm sorry, that's my favorite poetry collection," The voice said.

Reid turned and saw a woman standing there. He jerked in surprise at how close she stood to him. She was about his height, with black hair and blue eyes that reminded him of the ocean. Her skin was alabaster and her face was heart shaped. Her hair was long and hung in spiral curls around her face. Her lips were rose pink and she wore a simple pink dress that fell to her knees.

He could feel his cheeks getting hot and he dropped his eyes to the old cream colored tile floor. His mouth didn't want to work for a reply. He had to say something though, or she'd think him rude.

He looked up and she was still standing there looking at him with a tiny smile. "I - um… well I guess I didn't t-think anyone else w-would want that b-book."

_Damn… Why couldn't he speak without stuttering like a fool?_

"Elizabeth Barrett Browning is my favorite."

"Me too…" He said feeling a bit light headed from the scent of lilacs that hung around her.

"What's your favorite poem by her?" She asked.

"Um… I - Hm… I don't remember." He whispered, feeling his face get even hotter under her gaze. His heart was pounding very hard, so that he could hear it in his ears as though he'd run a marathon.

_"And yet, because thou overcomest so,because thou art more noble and like a king,Thou canst prevail against my fears and flingThy purple round me, till my heart shall growtoo close against thine heart henceforth to knowhow it shook when alone. Why, conqueringMay prove as lordly and complete a thingin lifting upward, as in crushing low!And as a vanquished soldier yields his swordto one who lifts him from the bloody earth…" _

She quoted softly.

_"Even so, Beloved, I at last record,Here ends my strife. If thou invite me forth,I rise above abasement at the word.Make thy love larger to enlarge my worth._

Reid finished the quote. "Sonnet sixteen," He said.

"Yes, I adore that one." She said.

"D-do you like -"

Suddenly the young woman's face took on a look of extreme terror and she said. "I'm so sorry I have to go."

"But -"

She turned, and left without another word, disappearing around the corner of the shelves.

"I didn't get your name." Reid completed his thought out loud in a soft voice. Then he sagged back against the shelves.

Of course she would leave, it's not like he was the kind of guy that girls liked. He should just pick up the book, check it out and leave. Instead, he hurried to the end of the row of shelves and looked around the corner. She was gone of course. He walked quickly up and down all the rows of books looking for her, driven on by something that he didn't understand, but she was gone.

With slumped shoulders, and an inexplicable hole in his heart that hurt like nothing he'd ever known, he went back to the row of books that held Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry and grabbed the book on the floor. He also took every copy of her poetry books he could find and trudged back up to the checkout desk.

"Dr Reid, are you alright?" The woman behind the desk asked him.

She was very short and plump with graying dark brown hair and eyes the color of good whiskey. Her face was lined, and she had a kind smile that made him want to spill everything and beg her if she'd seen the young woman, or knew her name.

"Oh… ah no Mrs. Warren, I'm fine."

"You look a bit pale."

"It - it was j-just a bad case."

"You poor dear, and the storm outside isn't helping I'm sure."

"I - well," He looked around and saw that no one was in hearing range. "I was looking for a girl I saw in the poetry section."

He was oblivious to the look the librarian gave him and listened to his description of the young girl. The poor young doctor was stuttering and red faced by the time he finished telling her about his encounter.

"I've never seen anyone that looked like that here, and you know I know everyone that comes in here. Besides, I was in the office a minute ago, so I might not have seen her leave the library." She let her glasses fall to her chest on the beaded chain she wore around her neck.

"Oh… I was just wondering if you knew her name."

"I'm sorry dear boy…"

"It's okay, I'll just take these."

She watched him fish out his card with trembling hands. The poor boy was so cute and he didn't seem to have a girlfriend. He was so painfully shy, it hurt to watch sometimes. Maybe she would set him up with her niece.

She scanned all of his books while planning a way to get Marcie to go out with him. Her niece was just the sort of girl to drag him out of his shell. She gave him his card back and smiled. "I'm sure you'll find someone very nice one day." She said with the air of an aunt pinching his cheeks and telling him how adorable he was.

"Thanks Mrs. Warren."

"Don't bring them back late." She joked. He never brought his books back late.

"I won't," He said distractedly and then he was gone out into the rain.

"He's going to get soaked. He needs someone to take care of him." She said to herself and pulled out her address book from her bag.

--

The storm was over when Reid parked his car in front of the small rental home he lived in. The sky was completely gray and turning dark as the clock turned over to six pm. He shuffled all the books to one arm and tried to put his key in the lock without dropping the books. He managed to hang on to them till he got inside, where they all fell to the floor along with his messenger bag, which hit his right foot.

"Ouch… damn it." He yelped.

He thought about leaving everything where it lay, but then he heard his mother saying_. "We don't leave library books on the floor Spencer." _

He gathered them up and stacked them on the edge of the table in the entryway. He left his messenger bag on the floor next to the table and headed into the bathroom for a towel. His hair and shirt were soaked, and his cords were well splattered with rain. He grabbed the towel and went to his bedroom for a pair of pajama bottoms and a tee shirt.

The furnace kicked on at the same time he was throwing his clothes in the washer. The warm breath of the heater made his skin prickle. Just like that girl had made goose bumps pop up on his arms.

_Don't think about her! _

Yeah, he needed some coffee and a sandwich, or something else. He was thirsty and he was starving. He went to the kitchen and decided he was too depressed to cook, or even make a sandwich. His fridge had the number for the nearest pizza place under a magnet. He called it and then went to his living room.

He could still see her smile and her beautiful eyes in front of his eyes. He should have been like Morgan. His partner wouldn't have let that girl just walk away. He would have got the girl's name, her phone number and made a date with her.

_You're pathetic Dr. Reid. _

He pulled his legs up on the couch and stared at the clock till the pizza guy brought his pizza. He paid the man, and grabbed two pieces and a beer instead of the coffee. It was Friday night, maybe he'd get drunk. He took the pizza and the beer to his living room and turned on the Sci-Fi channel. There was a Star Trek marathon on till midnight. Star Trek was better than dealing with real life and women any day of the week.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/n hello everyone, here's the next chapter for you. Hope you enjoy...**_

_**Disclaimer: see my profile**_

Reid opened his messenger bag and took out the poetry book he'd been carrying around for the last week. There had been no time to read it while they were on their last case.

Now, he sat on the jet as it hummed along on its journey northeast to Quantico. The interior cabin of the jet was dark, but also shadowed by the light over Reid's seat. Morgan sat back in his seat with the ear buds to his I pod stuck in his ears. Reid wasn't sure if his partner was asleep, but he didn't care. JJ lay on the bench asleep, her long blond hair half covering her face, and a blanket pulled up to her shoulders. Emily was asleep in her seat, her head resting against the wall of the cabin. Hotch and Rossi were working on paperwork at opposite ends of the cabin, and Reid was just sitting there trying to sleep, but his eyes wouldn't stay closed.

He traced the title of the book and smiled at the feel of the gold leaf on the leather binding. He couldn't get her deep blue eyes and rosy pink lips out of her mind. He couldn't stop thinking about her, despite the logical part of his brain that demanded he better wise up, and remember that there was no such thing as love at first sight.

You'll never see her again, so you better forget about her!

The voice was right, but there was a tiny part of him that wished he'd been braver and smooth like Morgan. He should have got her name and her home number. He should have stopped acting like such a wet noodle.

He opened the book and began to read the words he'd already memorized long ago. The words were soothing in their simplicity, and their emotion. Morgan would laugh to see him reading poetry. So, it was a good thing that his partner was asleep.

"Hey Reid, what ya reading," A voice said from over his shoulder.

Damn… so close to actually enjoying a book for a change.

He snapped the book shut and tried to put it in his bag, but a dark-skinned hand reached out and yanked it away. Morgan sat down across from his friend and smiled at the curses coming out of the seemingly innocent mouth.

"Such language Reid… Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"

Reid only gave Morgan a hard look and the older man said. "Hey sorry man, I was just surprised to hear you talking that way."

Reid sighed heavily, "I just want to read my book."

Morgan checked the cover and saw that it was a poetry book by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. There was something in the genius's eyes that made him put the book on the seat next to him. He leaned back and crossed his arm over his chest.

"So… Why don't you tell me what's so special about that book?"

Reid shifted in his chair, and decided to study the window that looked out on the black night and the stars that surrounded the airplane.

"I like her poetry, that's all."

"Right… Why do I think you're holding out on me?"

"Because you're a profiler and naturally suspicious," Reid countered.

"No… I don't think that's it," Morgan said. "I think there's more to it than just my natural curiosity."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Then why won't you look me in the eye?"

Reid looked away from the window and trained his eyes on his friend. If he could just look at Morgan in the eye long enough for the other man to decide that nothing was wrong.

"It won't work Reid, you can't fool me. Something's been bothering you for the past week. You'll feel better if you talk about it."

"No I won't, because you'll just tease me."

"Well yeah… that's my job as your friend and teammate." Morgan deadpanned.

Reid only frowned and looked down at the book of poetry on the seat next to Morgan. If he told his partner what was wrong, Morgan would probably laugh at him. Then again, Morgan could tell him what to do to stop thinking about the girl in the library. There was no way he'd ever see her again, so it was best to just forget her and go on with his life. He looked back up at Morgan, who was unusually quiet and staring at him.

"Okay… I was - um… well I was in the library last week after that case we had."

Morgan nodded his eyes going cold with remembered anger before they cleared and began to twinkle at his friend.

"I was looking for a particular book and well… Oh I can't tell you. You're going to laugh."

"Hey… I'm your friend Reid. If you need me I've always got your back no matter what."

Reid was very quiet for long minutes before resignation clouded his chocolate eyes and he said "I met a girl there. She and I reached for the same book and… Morgan, she was so beautiful and all I did was stand there like an idiot. Then we sort of talked about poetry and she just left, and I didn't see which way she went, and then she was gone and I couldn't stop thinking about her." He said all of this very fast before lowering his eyes to the book again, unable to face the laughter that had been growing in Morgan's eyes.

Morgan chuckled instead of laughing outright. Reid looked up and shot him a nasty look. "I knew you'd laugh at me."

"Reid… it was just a pretty girl. Why are you so upset over one pretty girl? I'm sure there are plenty of girls out there that would love to take a ride on the Dr. Spencer Reid love train."

"That's it… I'm going to go to sleep and pretend that I never told you." He pulled the blanket on the chair next to him up over his thin body and closed his eyes.

"Reid… Look at me," Morgan said.

Reid opened one eye and saw that Morgan wasn't smiling or laughing. "I'm listening," Morgan said.

"I know that it's stupid and illogical, but I…"

Oh God this was so humiliating, he couldn't say it to Morgan of all people when he didn't understand what was happening to him. "I don't understand…" Reid said.

"Don't sweat it Reid, beautiful women can make you do things you'd never do."

"There's no such thing as love at first sight." Reid insisted as his face got hot with embarrassment.

"Says the man with the big brain," Morgan said and his smile was back. "Just go with it, you'll be very happy that you did."

"But that's the point Morgan, I didn't even get her name or number or anything. I just let her walk away."

"So go back to the library. If she's a bookworm like you, I'm sure she must go there a lot."

"Morgan, that's stupid. How am I supposed to know when she'll be there?"

"That's your problem," Morgan said.

"A lot of help you are," Reid said sarcastically.

"Sorry, it's the best I can come up with," Morgan answered.

Reid closed his eyes and pulled the blanket up around his ears. He refused to go back to the library. It was a dumb idea that would never work.

--

Two days later on a rainy Saturday afternoon, Reid stepped up to the doors of the library and went inside. The whole way over in his SUV he'd tried to convince himself that this was a dumb idea, and Morgan would laugh when he found out that Reid had actually come back here to look for her.

He dropped off all the books he'd read and memorized in the return slot at the desk. Mrs. Warren was there wearing a pink cardigan sweater over a gray blouse with a large bowtie at the collar. Her glasses hung down over her ample bosom and she smiled at the young man in front of her.

"Hello Dr. Reid, I see you're back for more books."

"Ah… Yeah…."

"Have a good time." She smiled up at him.

"Yeah… Ah thanks," He stuttered.

He left the desk and went to the poetry section. It was deserted just like it had had been the day he'd first seen her there. He stopped at the intersection of the hallway and looked at the end of the shelves. Just around the corner was where he'd have to go to find her if she were there.

He stepped around the corner and she was there, looking at the intersection of rows instead of the books, as though she had been waiting for him. But that was crazy, wasn't it; she couldn't have been waiting there for him.

"Hello…" She said, and her voice was like music, exactly as it had been in his dreams for the last week.

"Um… hi," He squeaked out and wanted the floor to open up and swallow him.

"Did you like the book?" She asked.

"Yeah… it was great. I left it up front if you want to borrow it."

"Okay…"

Reid twisted his hands nervously in front of him. She was as beautiful as he remembered and she wore a white sweater with pink roses embroidered into the lapel. The buttons were also pink roses and they matched her lips and dress.

"Um… can I, ah may I ask your name." He stammered.

Her eyes became very wistful and sad for a moment then she said. "My name's Katie."

"Oh… um, it's a very nice name. I mean it suits you, I mean - Oh I'm sorry." He trialed off into silence and wished again that the floor could open up and swallow him.

"What's your name?" She'd come closer to him and he could smell lilacs around her.

"Dr. Reid, I mean Dr. Spencer Reid… but you can call me Spencer if you want to."

"Spencer," She tried out the name like it was a morsel of chocolate. "Can we sit down and talk for awhile?"

"Oh… ah, yeah… I guess." He followed her to a small table at the back of the library.

He rushed forward to pull the chair out for her and she smiled up at him. "You're very nice Spencer, Thank you."

"Y-you're welcome," He pushed in the chair and went around to the other side to sit down.

"Do you come here often?" He blurted out without thinking and felt his face getting very red again. "I'm s-sorry that's s-sounds like the w-worst p-pick-up line in the world."

He suddenly found his hands more interesting than looking at her face. But, then something pulled them back up to look at her face and her beautiful black hair.

"I don't think it's a bad pick-up line. I think it's a legitimate question. The answer is that I love the library and reading books so I come here quite a lot."

"Oh… I like it here too."

She smiled at him again and his stomach did an odd flipping motion. Her eyes seemed to fill up his entire vision and the scent of lilacs that hung around her was making his brain feel a bit fuzzy.

"What do you do for a living Spencer?"

"What… oh… um I'm an FBI agent."

"That must be very exciting."

"Yeah… it is," He said and he found himself telling her a lot about his job and Quantico and his friends.

Half an hour had passed while he dominated the conversation with his job and his friends. She listened to him talk without interrupting till the clock reached three pm.

"I really have to go," she said when he stopped for breath. Her face had taken on that worried and frightened look he'd seen the other day.

"Oh… um can I call you sometime."

Her face shut down and she frowned. Well… he'd done it. She didn't want to see him outside this library. All she was interested in was someone that liked the same kinds of books. He shouldn't have listened to Morgan and come back here looking for her.

"I'd really like that, but I can't," She told him and her eyes looked through him to something he couldn't see.

"Oh, well… You're probably seeing someone and…"

"Yeah I'm seeing someone." Her eyes had gone cold and hard, replacing the fear with - was that hate - and they made him shiver.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to -"

"It's okay, I really have to go. I hope I see you here again sometime. I hope we can be friends."

There was a pleading timbre to her voice and tone that made his heart hurt. She asked the question like she didn't have any friends in the world.

"Sure, okay, I'd like that."

He was pathetic. He should just go and forget her. It wasn't fair what she was asking of him when all he wanted to do was look after her and keep her from getting hurt.

"Are you sure you're okay," He blurted out and felt his face get hot again.

Why had he asked that question? Obviously she had someone else to take care of her. He should step aside and look for someone that didn't have someone. Her eyes held mysteries that he couldn't hope to explore if she walked out of the library, but he couldn't stop her from going.

She stood in front of him and reached out to touch his face. Her hand was warm and soft. He closed his eyes and waited. What he was waiting for he didn't know, but then the warmth was gone. He opened his eyes and she was gone. He looked around just in time to see her walk around a corner. Instead of going after her again, he stayed in his chair and looked out the window to the rain that pelted the blacktop of the parking lot. It ran down the windows like elongated tears and made everything wavy and ethereal in the mid-afternoon light.

After another thirty minutes of staring at the rainstorm and seeing reflected in the window the people passing by as they searched for adventure, romance and horror in the shelves behind him, he stood up and left.

He took the same path back to the front of the building, passing the shelves where he'd first seen her and it didn't occur to him to wonder why she didn't answer his question.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: See my profile**_

The rain had slowed to a light sprinkle by Monday morning. He woke up to quiet, instead of the pounding of the rain on the roof of his rental home. The windows were splattered, instead of weeping like they had for the entire weekend.

He hit the snooze button on his alarm and considered calling in sick. Going in and getting to work on cases that had probably been piling up on his desk since their last case, was more than he could handle. He pulled the covers up over his head and closed his eyes. If he could just forget about Katie… but it was no use, she'd been dominating his thoughts ever since he first saw her. There was just something about her.

He turned over when the alarm went off again and threw off the blanket. He could stay in the bed and wallow in misery, or he could get up and face the music of another day. With Hotch's face in front of him and the disapproval he knew would be there if he didn't show up, Reid got out of bed and headed for coffee and a shower.

--

The bullpen was buzzing as it always was on a Monday. Emily and Morgan were already hard at work on some consults JJ had brought them, just minutes before the elevator had brought Reid to the sixth floor. He went straight to the break room for a cup of coffee. Maybe if he stayed in the break room long enough, he'd be able to fool Morgan into thinking that nothing was wrong.

"Hey man… How come you're hiding in here?"

_Well, it had been a good try. _

"I'm not hiding. I'm getting a cup of coffee. See this, it's a coffee mug, and this is the sugar and -"

"I know all that - you've been in here for fifteen minutes. How long does it take to make a cup of lousy coffee?

"That's the point… The coffee is lousy, so I have to add the right amount of sugar to get it down."

He snuck a look at Morgan, who was leaning against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes were dancing with mirth or sparkling with suppressed laughter. He had that concerned look that Reid had learned to be wary of during his drug clouded days.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"There's nothing to tell." He sipped at his coffee hoping that the cup would hide his face from his friend's knowing eyes.

"Is it the nightmares again?"

"No…" He said just a little too loudly.

"Then what is it?"

Somehow, the way that Morgan was looking at him, and the fact that his friend wasn't teasing him or demanding to be told, made him spill his guts about Katie and what happened.

Morgan said, "Hey… Don't beat yourself up about it. You took a chance and it didn't work out. There are lots of other women out there."

"I know Morgan, I just - well I, geez… I don't know what I mean. I just have a feeling that something isn't right with her. I don't know how to explain it."

"I think you're obsessed. I have a couple of friends that would love to meet you. They are some fine looking women and I know that at least one of them would hit it off great with you."

"Morgan…" Reid's voice had taken on a warning tone.

"I'm serious. You need to get your mind off this woman."

"I don't want to go on a blind date Morgan."

JJ breezed into the room and said, "There you are, I have a couple of really pressing requests for you." She pushed a couple of files into his arms and nearly knocked the coffee out of his hands, but he was too happy to see her to be mad.

"Thanks," He said, but he was looking at Morgan.

"This isn't over Reid."

"I know," Reid picked up his coffee cup "Thanks," He said again, this time looking right at JJ. He fled to his desk.

--

Garcia un-wrapped her newest pen from the novelty store bag. It was bright pink with a clear middle and silver stars floating inside that moved every time she tilted it. It went next to the pad of paper that sat next to her precious keyboard.

Someone tapped on her door while she admired it, and she said, "Come on in," while swiveling around in her chair to see who needed her help.

"Hi Garcia," Reid said, standing there in her doorway and looking utterly miserable.

"Hey sweet cheeks… What's the matter?"

He edged into the room and shut the door behind him. He just stood there fidgeting with one sleeve of his white dress shirt. She observed him for several minutes, and finally he took a seat in the chair next to hers and began to speak.

"Do you believe in love at first sight?"

She was a bit taken aback at this question. Reid was the most logical and linear thinking person she'd ever met, so this question was very weird coming from him.

"Sure, I fell in love with Esther the minute I saw her." She quipped.

He shot her a withering look. "I'm not talking about cars."

"I know that, I'm just trying to get you to loosen up. You got storm clouds following you around like that kid in the Peanuts comic strip."

"Actually, it's a cloud of dust and dirt that follow Pig-Pen wherever he goes."

"I'm not going to call you Mr. Know-it-all because you look so sad." Garcia said.

She picked up the new pen and began to twist it around in her hands. "Are you going to tell me what's bothering you, or do I have to go ask Morgan?"

"I met a girl about a week ago."

Garcia's eyebrows went into her bangs. JJ was going to be pissed that she'd lost the pot the three of them had going over guessing what Reid was so unhappy about. After her friends paid up, she'd have enough money for a new pair of shoes.

"So tell me about her." Garcia said, keeping the glee out of her voice by sheer will.

He told her all about meeting Katie in the library, and how Morgan had convinced him to go back and try to see her again.

"So I took his advice and she's already seeing someone. I should have known she would be - a pretty girl like her probably has guys falling all over her all the time."

Garcia clucked her teeth and shook her head. "Don't sell yourself short Reid. I'm sure there are lots of girls that would love to go out with you. You're a handsome thing and you're sweet, and kind, and gentle."

"Morgan said there were lots of other girls out there too. I know that's true, but like I told him, there is just something about her that I have to know more about. Something is wrong in her life I think."

Garcia watched her friend closely and saw that he was serious. "Okay… so what do you need me to do?"

"I don't know… I guess I just wanted to talk to someone. I think I must be obsessed like Morgan said."

"My chocolate God is very perceptive, but he doesn't know everything."

"I don't know what to do."

"Do you want me to find her for you?'

He looked completely floored by the question and a bit taken off guard. "No, I don't want to look for her. She has her own life and I need to get back to mine."

He got up and left the room before Garcia could respond. She put the tip of the pen in her mouth and thought for a long time before turning to her babies.

"You may not want to find her sweet cheeks, but I do. No one hurts my baby and gets away with it."

--

Reid and the others met at the bar after work, and when the rain began to fall again, Garcia dropped him off at his home. He was stone cold sober despite Morgan trying to get him drunk. Garcia left him at his doorstep and he fumbled the key to his door out of his pocket.

The rain had begun to sing off the roof again, and everything around him was black and filled with shadows. The lights on the street threw more shadows to mingle with the rain. He pushed the key into the lock and turned it. The click couldn't be heard over the rain, but even so, he felt like he was being watched. He looked around in the dark and the light from the street, but no one was there. He waited as the rain fell onto the over hang of the porch. There was someone there, but he couldn't see them. He reached for his Glock, but nothing moved in the blackness of the shadows.

He tried again to see into the shadows, but there was nothing there. "You're getting paranoid Reid." He mumbled to the darkness and went into his house.

--

She stood in the rain watching the light come on in his house. She had seen him look around as though he knew that she watched him. She wasn't worried - he couldn't see her in the rain and the darkness. She belonged to them the way he couldn't and they hid her well.

She stayed in the shadow of the trees on the street across from his home till the lights went out and she knew that he slept. She didn't know why she was here. What had compelled her to come here? He couldn't help her. No one could help her. She was doomed and it was time to accept it.

She didn't want to accept it. He was a kind and good man. She was drawn to him like a moth to a flame. Would he be her savior, or would he be her ultimate destruction. She turned and left the street. She wouldn't come back here again.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer: see my profile.**_

_**A/n hey all, here's the next chapter for your enjoyment. Let me know what you think and thanks to you all for your wonderful reviews. And thanks to my outstanding beta REIDFANATIC for helping me whip this story into shape. **_

The jet touched down on the tarmac at the very instant the sun dipped below the horizon. The bright golden light that had streamed into the cabin suddenly went purple, and Reid blinked his eyes in surprise at the change. The rain that had seemed to be never ending was gone. The sky was rose and violet with golden clouds at the horizon.

The plane slowed and stopped. Reid sat still, hoping to be the last one off the plane. If he were quiet enough, he might become invisible and Morgan wouldn't ask him to come out for a drink with them.

"Hey Reid… You do know that plane landed, right?"

Too late, he should have known that Morgan wouldn't just let him be. "Yes Morgan, I noticed," he said shortly.

_Maybe he'll take the hint and leave_.

"Then why are you still sitting there? Prentiss and I are going out for a drink and we're meeting Garcia later."

"Not tonight Morgan," He said with as much finality in his voice that he could manage.

Morgan blinked, but stood his ground "Come on Man. You got to stop moping around. I told you -"

Reid shouted him down. "I said no Morgan! I'm going home."

Morgan watched in astonishment as Reid stood, grabbed his bags and pushed past him to the exit.

"What's the matter with him?" Emily asked bewildered.

"I think I know some of it, but I'm sure there's more to the story."

Reid reached his little house half an hour later. He parked, grabbed his bags and made his way into the house. The slamming of the door behind him didn't help his frustration. Morgan didn't know when to quit sometimes and it was beginning to get on his nerves. Why couldn't his partner understand that he wanted to be left alone to figure things out?

The house was quiet and empty. No other human being marred the silence that he used to think he liked. Now the silence seemed to press on his ears like thick molasses. Coming home to emptiness wasn't fun anymore, now that Katie filled his thoughts despite his logical brain telling him to forget her. Perhaps he should have taken Morgan up on the drink instead of getting mad and telling him off. The problem was, if he called his friend and apologized, it would set a bad precedent. Morgan would just think he could "talk" Reid into going another time without a fight.

It was fully dark when he emerged from the shower and went to the closet for a pair of jeans. He also pulled a long sleeved denim shirt the color of cranberries out of the back of his closet. He dressed, adding one burgundy sock and one dark blue sock to the ensemble. He took a battered black leather jacket from the hall closet after donning his Converse shoes. His keys were on the table in the entryway off the living room. He picked up the keys and put them, with his wallet, into the front pocket of his jeans. His Glock went into the waistband of his jeans, and was hidden when he pulled on the leather jacket. He added his badge to the other front pocket of his pants.

His car started on the first time for a change. It wasn't that his salary, or the money he won on weekend trips to Vegas didn't cover maintenance on the old car, he just didn't have time. When he did have time, he always forgot about the car till he tried to start it. One day the car was going to leave him stranded by the road somewhere, but for now it was running fine enough to get him where he needed to go. Though it was about that time to make another trip to Las Vegas or Atlantic City, and always he'd promise himself to get the car repaired. The thought of buying a new car never crossed his mind.

It took half an hour, but he eventually found what he was looking for. It was a club he'd found just driving around in the days when the cravings for Dilaudid was a fire in his brain and he couldn't sleep. It was before he found his support group. It had seemed to call out to him and overpower the desire for the liquid poison he had been battling with to stay sober. It was called "The Back Alley."

He parked the old Volvo at the end of the street. The club was a remolded warehouse that was rectangular in shape and huge. It sat back from the street and at an angle to the southeast corner of the block. He could see the strobes flashing in the high windows and people entering the large double doors at the center of the facing wall. He'd just parked and hadn't left the car, but he could hear, and feel, the low pounding bass underlying the music that radiated from inside the club.

The music got louder as he walked across the blacktop parking lot to the entrance and joined the people shunting into the entrance. The smell of sweat and smoke twisted around him as he entered the dark interior. Strobe lights pierced the crowd that writhed around him. Bodies swayed, and twisted, and jumped on the dance floor as heavy metal roared and blocked out everything, but the desire to get lost in the music. He let himself get caught up in the crowd. It jostled him into strangers that held onto each other like they would drown if they let go.

The wave of music and the crowd moved him to one side of the warehouse where he washed up against a table like the tide of the ocean on the beach. He blinked against the strobe and saw that the table was empty. Small red votives candles were the only illumination besides the pulsing red and blue lights.

A waitress in black leather and stiletto heels maneuvered through the crowd like she had been born in chaos. Reid waved her away and she smirked at him as she swerved off in the opposite direction. He watched the dancers closest to him, and ignored several different come-ons from women and at least two men. He was here for the music not companionship. The screaming guitars and thumping percussion was just the thing to drive out all the grotesque things he had to deal with everyday. There was just something about the loud music that shut down the images that careened around his brain and made it so he couldn't sleep.

The music changed at the same time someone walked up to him. In the dark, strobe filled light, he saw Katie standing next to his table. He blinked, sure that she was an illusion, but when he opened his eyes again she was still there.

"Come dance with me…"

"What… no, I thought you -"

"Dance with me Spencer Reid."

The order, delivered in the musical voice that had haunted his dreams and waking hours pulled him to his feet. He followed her into the crowd despite wondering what she was doing there in the first place. He'd never seen her there before…

"You're so tense Spencer. Loosen up," She shouted over the crowd that was pushing them closer together.

She waved her hands over her head and let her body writhe and sway to the loud hammering music like the rest of the crowd. This kind of dancing was more Reid's style than the formal ballroom dancing his mother had taught him when she was in her right mind for a while when he was thirteen. The freedom and abandon that came with just moving to the beat of the music could be very intoxicating, more than anything he ever found in a needle. It didn't matter who you were on a dance floor. Everyone around them was after the same thing - leaving their cares and problems behind.

"What are you doing here?" He yelled over the noise.

"The same thing as you," She said.

"What's that," He was getting tired of shouting. He was getting tired of the games with her!

"You know, or you wouldn't be here."

"Why are you speaking in riddles? One minute you seem terrified to be with me, and the next you don't care where we are or what we're doing. I don't understand what you want."

She smiled and danced a bit closer to Reid. He could smell lilacs over the smell of sweat that was the most pervasive scent in the air.

"Just relax…"

"I thought you had a boyfriend."

"Don't spoil it."

He could see the effort it took for her to keep the terror out of her eyes. It was completely incongruous to the way she was acting. It didn't make sense… Why couldn't he profile her? What was blocking the skills he depended on?

"I'm not; I just want to know why you're here." He finally said, not expecting an answer, but needing one all the same.

She frowned and took his hand, pulling him through the crowd to a hallway that led off to rest rooms. She was much stronger than she looked and he couldn't get free of her hand.

"I'm here because I need you."

"What do you need?"

"I can't tell you."

But she could tell him, he could see it in her eyes. She was waging some horrible inner battle that didn't make sense to him.

"Why, I want to help you. Is he hurting you? "

"Reid…" A strong voice was shouting over the crowd.

A familiar, strong voice, which was the last one Reid, wanted to hear. He turned around and saw Morgan struggling through the crowd with Garcia and Emily in tow.

"Katie, those are my friends, come meet -" He'd turned back and saw that she was gone. He looked around and couldn't see her. Where had she gone? Why did she keep running away from him?

"Reid…" He turned around again when a big hand fell on his shoulder. "Hey man, what's wrong?"

"She was just here."

"Who…"

"You know who," Reid shouted.

"What's wrong Reid," Garcia added her voice to the din and confusion around them.

"Nothing… I have to go."

"Reid… Where are you going?" Emily shouted.

"I have to go find her."

He elbowed his way through the crowd, ignoring some angry looks and furious oaths thrown at him by the people he knocked over in his hurry. He disappeared fast in the gloom of the dance floor leaving his friends to stare after him.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Disclaimer: See my profile**_

Reid pushed his way through the pulsing mass of people that moved and swayed to the loud metal music. The strobe lights were very disorienting and he kept going in the wrong direction. He looked for curly black hair and seemed to see it everywhere. He saw her eyes, and her smile, in every woman's face he encountered trying to get through the club to the door.

He didn't hear Morgan shouting to him from behind, or hear the curses of the couples he pushed out of his way to get to Katie. Finally, he ended up at the entrance to the club and was about to go outside when a hand fell on his shoulder and someone spun him around. A very angry voice cursed at him over the din of the music as he was pushed up against the black painted block wall.

"You want to watch what you're doing."

The man in front of him was huge. His fists looked like they could not only break his nose, but put a hole right through his face. He had dirty blond hair and light green eyes. His nose was squashed like a small pug dog, and there was a crooked scar running from his left temple down the side of his face to his chin.

"I didn't see -"

"Are you blind stickman? You almost knocked my girl friend on her pretty little ass."

A very small, black haired woman stood next to the man and she was grinning up at Reid like he was the source of great amusement. Her eyes were as dark as Katie's, and his heart began to beat so fast at the sight of them, it felt like it was going to jump up out of his throat.

"You going to just stand there staring, you little freak?"

"I'm sorry," He began to stutter.

"Hey…" Morgan's voice came through the crowd.

He grabbed a hold of the man's arm and stopped the arc it was making towards Reid's face. Reid hadn't noticed that the man was about to connect fist to face.

"Back off jack ass…" Morgan growled.

"Who are you, his body guard?"

"No… I'm a federal agent and so is he. So if you don't want to go away for a long time, back off."

The two men were nose to nose, but Reid could see that the man he'd angered was backing off at the sight of Emily's badge. She'd worked her way out of the crowd with Garcia trailing along behind her.

"Fine… but don't let me catch you in here again or you're dead!"

"Thank you," Morgan said, wrestling the man into cuffs. "You just threatened a federal officer, which is a bad as hitting one. You just made my night."

The crowd that had been gathering around them began to disperse at the sight of all the badges and the handcuffs.

--

Reid was standing next to his car watching the cops load his new "friend," into the back of a black and white. "So are you going to tell me what happened in there?" Reid hadn't realized that Morgan had approached his car. A lot of the people that had been partying inside were making tracks to leave now that the cops had shown up. The place was emptying out faster than rats deserting the Titanic.

"Nothing happened, except that once again, I got on the wrong side of a bully."

"I'm not talking about Mister Scar Face. I'm talking about what happened before you ran into your new admirer."

"Morgan…"

"He's right - we're worried about you." Garcia said and her face reflected the concern that showed in Emily's eyes.

So he told them about Katie, and everything that had happened from the moment he first saw her in the library. The concern that he'd seen in Garcia and Emily's eyes was forming in Morgan's eyes too.

"Reid…" Morgan began.

"No… I know what you're going to say."

"I'm not going to say anything. We just want to help you."

"Right, so that's why your talking to me like I'm an un-sub, like I'm about to kill someone."

"I'm not talking to you like you're a un-sub Reid."

"Look… I know you think I'm obsessed, but Katei needs my help. I'm going to find her and I'm going to help her."

"You're being irrational Reid." Morgan said and Garcia clapped a hand over her mouth in shock.

"Thanks Morgan, It's good to know you're on my side."

"Hey man… I'm sorry if I hurt you, but you have to know that this is crazy."

"Why is it crazy?"

"You hardly know that woman. You've met her three times and you can't tell me anything about her besides her first name and what she looks like. You said yourself that she's seeing someone. You have to let it go."

"No… I don't have to let it go. She needs my help. I don't know why, but she does. I can tell just by looking at her."

He turned stuck his key in the door to the car and opened it. "Reid, please don't go." Emily begged him.

"Leave me alone. I'm going to show you all that I'm right."

He got into the car and slammed the door while the others stood by helplessly. "Reid…" He could hear Garcia shouting through the closed window. They were wrong… There was nothing wrong with him. Katie needed his help. He was going to find her, and then maybe he could sleep at night and concentrate at work.

--

Morgan knocked on Hotch's office door the next day. The abrupt, 'come in,' was just what he expected and it put his world, that had been out of wack since they all ended up at the same club last night, right again. He hesitated for an instant before opening the door and facing his boss. Hotch was doing paperwork and he glanced up at Morgan with a "what do you want," look.

"I'm sorry to bother you Hotch, but I'm worried about Reid."

Hotch's eyebrows went up into his hair. "Why," he asked.

Morgan took the chair across from his boss's desk and began to tell the unit chief what was bothering him. Hotch gave him his undivided attention, but he didn't interrupt, or ask any questions till Morgan had finished his accounting of all that he knew up to the night before in the club.

"I don't know what to do. He's acting like an infatuated teenager Hotch."

"I've noticed that he's been a bit distracted at work." Hotch said.

"Then we need to talk to him, or something."

"Why do we need to do that?"

"Hotch… he's chasing after someone we don't know anything about. I've never seen her or talked to her and neither have the girls. He was telling us last night that she was at the club, but I didn't see her."

"You said that it was dark in there," Hotch reminded him as he sat back in his chair.

"Well yes, but I didn't -"

"And you said that he met her in a library, so someone had to have seen them there together."

"Yes… but Hotch I don't -"

"Are you trying to say that Reid is seeing things, that this girl isn't real?"

"No… I just think…" He trailed off because Hotch had hit it right on the head. "He's not becoming schizophrenic if that's what you think." Hotch said with certainty.

"How do you know," Morgan said and was instantly sorry he'd challenged his boss.

"You know as well as I do what the symptoms of the disease are and how they present themselves. Reid is not turning into his mother."

"Are you sure Hotch?"

"Yes, I'm sure… He's okay. If he doesn't pull it together, and if his work suffers because of this woman, then I will have a talk with him. Until then, I suggest you back off and leave him alone. I trust Reid, and if he thinks this woman is in some kind of trouble… then she probably is. He's one of the best profilers in the world, just like you and me."

"I know… I'm just afraid for the kid."

"I know you are, but you have to let him live his own life. If he wants to get hurt, then let him get hurt and learn from it. Who knows, maybe this thing, whatever it is with this girl, will work out. You do want to see him happy for a change Morgan."

Morgan shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He wanted his younger friend to be happy, but there was just something bugging him about this girl.

"Of course I do," He admitted.

"Good, then keep an eye out for him, but leave him alone." Hotch advised.

The unit chief went back to his paperwork and that was when Morgan knew that he was being dismissed. He got up and went to the door. Leaving this alone was going to be much harder than he thought.

--

JJ knocked on Garcia's door and entered when the tech's voice called out "Who's there?"

"It's the big bad wolf come to eat little red riding hood." JJ joked at the tone in her friend's voice.

"Enter!" Garcia called out in an impatient tone and JJ frowned at the door. What was going on with everyone?

"Hey, what's with the informal meeting that I wasn't invited to?" She said as she entered and saw that Emily was hunched over Penelope's shoulder, watching the tech work her magic.

"We're trying to find someone." Emily explained without looking up at her friend.

"Who are we looking for? We don't have a case that's hot." JJ said.

Garcia looked up and directly into the blonde's big blue eyes. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Are you kidding?" JJ said trying not to laugh.

"I'm serious," Garcia retorted.

"What're we getting into today? Is it the CIA files on Brad Pitt?"

"You can leave if you can't be serious." Emily said glaring up at JJ.

"Okay… sorry," JJ said taking the seat next to her two agitated teammates. "What's the matter," She asked again hoping to get a coherent answer this time.

"We're looking for a woman for Spencer." Emily said in total seriousness.

JJ snorted laughter and her friends trained two pairs of angry eyes at her. "What…" She said.

"This is serious!" Garcia said.

"I can see that, but don't you think we should let Reid pick out his own dates."

"It's not a date." Garcia said while her hands flew over the keyboard and pictures flashed by so fast JJ couldn't see how she could find anyone in the chaos.

"Yeah… we're looking for someone that Reid met in the library." Emily told JJ.

JJ watched Emily's face very carefully till the realization hit her that Emily and Garcia weren't playing around in Reid's life.

All business, she sat forward and looked at the computer screen more carefully than she had when she first entered the room. "What happened to Reid?"

Emily explained everything they knew to JJ while Garcia kept up a feverish pace on her computer searches.

"So you think that Reid's cracking up." JJ asked.

"No… we don't think he's cracking up. We're just very concerned that he seems so - attached - to this woman. He doesn't know anything about her. He doesn't know her full name or where she lives. He's sure that she's in some kind of trouble."

"If Reid thinks there's a problem, then there is a problem. You guys should trust him. He'd be really angry that you're snooping around in his life."

"We just want to keep him safe sunshine. This woman could be into anything and I think - wait, I think I found something."

Her computer was beeping and her voice had gone up an octave with excitement. Emily and JJ turned to the screen and Emily's jaw dropped.

"I think we need to talk to Hotch," JJ said.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Disclaimer: see my profile**_

Reid left the deli with a roast beef sandwich, a large kosher pickle and a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips. He'd decided to go with a bottle of soda instead of his usual coffee. The little tub of potato salad at the bottom of the white bag and a chocolate chip cookie rounded off the meal nicely.

He was very hungry and not in the mood to eat lunch in the cafeteria at Quantico so he'd walked to the small park just outside the strip mall that housed the deli. He wouldn't have to escape, but everyone was treating him like he was made of glass and might shatter at any moment. It was annoying and comforting at the same time, which really confused him. It also brought back bad memories of the months he wallowed in a Dilaudid induced haze.

The weather was very cool, but at least the rain had stayed away for another day. He found an empty bench painted dark green and sat down. There was a pond to his left that was rippling up in the wind that was also blowing his hair all around his face. The sun was bright overhead and he pushed his sunglasses up on his nose.

He watched people walking by the bench. They were few and far between as it was the middle of a work day, but he saw one elderly couple holding hands. They looked like they had been married for years and were as happy as the day they met. He was halfway through his sandwich when a guy that looked like he was in his thirties ran by wearing shorts and a tee shirt. He had I pod buds in his ears and a fanny pack around his waist. Despite knowing that running must get the guy's body temperature up, Reid thought he had to be cold in this weather.

He picked up the little tub of potato salad and took off the lid. He was dipping in the plastic fork when a shadow fell over the bench. He looked up and almost dropped the container of salad on the concrete walkway. He wanted to get up, but his legs suddenly felt like they had cement shoes.

"Hello," She said and sat down on the other side of the bench. Only the debris of his lunch was between them. She was more beautiful in the light of day, than she had been in the library and the club.

"Should I be happy to see you?" He asked forgetting about the rest of his lunch.

"Please don't be mad at me Spencer."

"Why not?" He asked in what he thought was a very reasonable tone. "You come and go out of my life like it's nothing. My friends think you're a figment of my imagination. Maybe they're right - you're just the beginning of a genetic disorder I was starting to think had passed me by."

"I'm not a figment of your imagination."

He picked up the second half of his sandwich and played with it, turning it over and over in his hands till the bread was pitted with his fingerprints.

"Then come back to Quantico with me. If you're in trouble, we can help you."

He looked into her deep dark eyes until she lowered her eyes and stared at her hands which were fidgeting in her lap. One hand played with a ring on her right hand. It was silver with a round turquoise stone in the center of the setting and some odd markings in the metal that he couldn't quite make out.

"I'm a profiler… I know when someone is hiding something." He tried again.

She twisted the ring around faster and faster on her finger. She wouldn't look at him so he went back to playing with his sandwich, which was beginning to fall apart. The red onion fell into the napkin on his lap, and a bit of mayo dripped out the side and onto his right hand.

"I'm not supposed to be here. I should go home."

"No…" He reached over and put a hand on her arm. "You're not leaving this time. Tell me what's happening to you. Let me help you."

She flinched away from his hand as though he'd slapped. He pulled back his hand. "I'm sorry."

"I told you that I was seeing someone."

"Yes," the wind continued to push his hair around his head and for small intervals of time he was blind to her before the wind died off and he could push back the strands that got in his face.

"It's a little more complicated then that." She said while staring at her shoes. "He tried to kill me."

"What!"

"He tried to kill me," she repeated and her lovely face had gone sheet white.

"When… Why didn't you call the police." Reid asked.

"I don't know… I should go."

She leapt up and ran down the path before he could stop her. "Katie," he called after her "Stop… let me help you, please!"

She didn't turn or acknowledge in any way. Her hair flew back in the wind and her pink dress whipped around her legs as she rounded the path out of sight. He followed her, but she was out of sight by the time he got back to the parking lot.

His head was reeling from this news. She said that someone, the person she was dating or living with, had tried to kill her. God, he had to find her before this guy tried it again.

He headed back the bench, grabbed his messenger bag. He gathered up the rest of his lunch and dumped it into a garbage container on his way out of the park. He was going to go talk to Hotch. Hotch would know what to do. He always knew what to do.

--

JJ knocked on Hotch's office door and heard a curt, "Come in."

She opened the door and stepped inside when Hotch looked up and nodded to her. "Has something important come up?" He asked her.

"No… Well yes actually…"

"Which is it," He asked a bit impatiently. He hadn't made a dent in the paper work on his desk.

"Can you come with me and take a look at something Garcia, Emily and I found?" She asked twisting her hands nervously. "It's about Reid."

Hotch stared at her and there was something in the depths of his eyes that made her heart rate go up. He looked a bit put out, but it was hard to tell.

"Morgan was in here a couple of hours ago. Please don't tell me he's been talking to you and you bought into what he had to say about Reid."

She decided to look at the picture of the President on the left hand wall instead of directly at her boss, instead of trying to maintain eye contact with her boss.

"Um… well, I didn't actually talk to Morgan. It was Emily and Garcia."

She said, kicking herself for blaming her friends, but with Hotch staring at her like that. It was hard to take all the blame for her thoughts on the subject. She didn't have to look at her boss to know that he was put out to say the least.

"I told Morgan and I'm going to tell you. Reid not becoming his mother, he's not ill. If he has a legitimate concern over this young woman, then we need to back off and leave him alone. He wouldn't appreciate you snooping into his business and you know it. Frankly I expected better of you JJ."

JJ dropped into the chair in front of him and leaned forward. "I don't think Reid is going crazy. I know he's not. He was right; there is a problem with this girl. Garcia found her in the local police files."

She watched as Hotch pinched the bridge of his nose. "Do I want to know?"

"No… you don't want to know," JJ smiled.

"What did our computer genius find?"

"Her name is Katherine Elizabeth Duncan. She was a student at Georgetown University in 2003, a sophomore when she went missing."

"Missing," Now his full attention was on his communications liaison.

"Yeah… She went missing without a trace five years ago, right here in Virginia."

Now the headache that had been coming on since Morgan talked to him, jacked up another notch. Leave it to Reid to get into something like this. It was infuriating and yet at the same time, he felt a surge of pride at the young genius.

"Okay… I want to see everything we have on the case. We're going to have to let the locals know that we may have information on one of their cold cases."

"But Hotch, where has she been all this time?"

"Maybe she went underground. It's easier than you might think to disappear these days."

"But why come out of hiding now?" JJ asked perplexed.

"I don't know… Give the locals what we know. They're going to want to talk to Reid."

"Aren't we going to do anything to help her?"

Hotch put down his pen and crossed his hands on the blotter in front of him. "We haven't been invited by the locals. I don't see how we can get involved."

"A federal agent was approached by her that has to account for something!"

Hotch raise his eyebrows at her acid comment. "I have complete trust in your ability to cut through the red tape and deal with the locals."

She grinned at him and got to her feet. "I'll just go back to my office then."

--

Hotch put another file on top of his out box when for the third time that day, someone knocked on his door. He sighed and told them to come in.

Reid rushed into his office and Hotch stopped him as he was opening his mouth. "I know why you're here and no, I don't think you're going crazy."

Reid's mouth snapped shut so hard Hotch heard his teeth click together. He wanted to smile, and it was very hard to suppress the urge with Reid standing there looking very agitated.

"Morgan and JJ talked to me about her… Garcia found her for you, but I don't think you're going to like it Reid."

--

She opened the door to the basement apartment she shared with Johnny and closed it carefully. At least he wasn't home. He wouldn't know that she had been gone. If he didn't know she was gone, he wouldn't have a reason to hurt her. She looked around the room that had become her prison and she wanted to cry.

Spencer was such a nice man. She should trust him and tell him about her predicament, but she just couldn't say the words. If he found out what she had done and the way she let Johnny hurt her, he would hate her. It was wrong that she stayed here and let it happen. She watched the day time shows and listened to the doctors on the radio. They all said that there were ways to get help, but it was so hard.

She didn't love Johnny anymore. She had loved him when they met in college, but he'd turned very mean and abusive to her. She didn't have anyone else. She was alone in this world.

She went to the couch and sat down. If she closed her eyes, she could dream that this was her home with Spencer. He was a kind man that wouldn't hurt her. She should trust him. But, what if Johnny found out, he would try to kill her again, or maybe he would hurt Spencer. But, he was a federal agent so he would be okay, Johnny wouldn't dare try to hurt him.

She twisted her ring, the ring that Johnny won at the fair. He promised to love and take care of her. Why did he hurt her if he loved her? It wasn't right… Anger grew in her chest and she got up off the couch. It didn't matter if he found her out of the apartment. He wouldn't be back very soon anyway. He hardly ever spent any time here anymore. She couldn't remember the last time he'd been there or spoken to her. She would go find Spencer again and ask him to help her.


	7. Chapter 7

Katie stood under the tree across from Reid's home where she had waited and watched for him. He wasn't there, but she could feel his presence like a veil over the grass, and the bare branches of the trees in the front yard. He would come back to the house soon, and she would tell him all about Johnny and what he'd done to her. She could trust Spencer Reid. She just knew it in her heart and she hadn't trusted anyone in a very long time. He could help her put her life back together.

The wind rose and white clouds tinged with grey began to scuttle across the sky. It looked like it was going to rain again. She hoped he would be home soon. It was going to get stormy and cold. She walked out from under the tree and moved to the house. She would wait for him on the stairs to the door. He would be back soon. He had to come back soon. She would be free of Johnny very soon and maybe she could see her family again.

--

JJ met Detective Rose Markowitz at the elevator. The detective was very short with shoulder length strawberry blond hair. Her eyes were light blue and large in her round face. She had a curvy body that was clad in navy blue slacks and a pink blouse. Her shoes were flat heeled and matched her pants. She wore her sidearm in a holster on her hip. Despite her height, she radiated an authority, and confidence that was meant for a much taller woman.

"I'm Detective Rose Markowitz," She held out a hand to JJ.

"I'm Special Agent Jareau. Please call me JJ if you like."

Det. Markowitz smiled and shook JJ's hand. "Glad to meet you, please call me Rose. I'm curious what your agent has found about the Katherine Duncan case."

JJ turned to lead the way across the upper walkway to the conference room. She gave the smaller woman her best cooperative smile. "Dr. Reid is one of our best profilers. He was the one that met Ms. Duncan in the library and has seen her several times since that meeting."

"Then I'd like to speak with him first."

"I figured you would. He's waiting for you in our conference room. He wants to find her as much as you do."

"Good," Detective Markowitz said as they passed through the door to the round table room.

Reid was sitting at the left of the round table skimming through the file Garcia had complied for him. His head was bent over the file and at first he didn't seem to realize that JJ, or the Detective, had entered the room. One finger was sliding down the top page of the police report on Katie's disappearance. He flipped to the next one, and then the next, before Det. Markowitz could whisper to JJ.

"Does he really read that fast?"

"Yep… he's our resident genius. He also has an eidetic memory, so I hope you know the details of the case."

Det. Markowitz's face hardened and JJ could see why she was feared at the ninth precinct in DC. "I know it better than anyone. It was the first case I ever worked as a new detective. I'll never forget her face or stop wondering what happened to her." She said through gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry - I didn't mean to imply that you weren't doing your job." JJ said with honest regret.

The detective's face softened and she gestured to Dr. Reid. "Does he even know we're in the same room?"

JJ laughed, "On some level yes, but he's probably tuning us out. He's good at that." She went over to Reid and tapped the table in front of him. "Hey Spence… Detective Markowitz is here to see you."

He jumped and then went tomato red at the sight of two women smiling at him. He could see they were trying not to laugh.

"Ah sorry… I guess I was a bit distracted." His voice was climbing up into the "squeak zone," as Garcia would say.

"Yeah, we can see that." JJ gestured to Det. Markowitz. "This is Detective Rose Markowitz. She's had this case in her unsolved file for the last five years. She wants to talk to you."

"Of course," He shot to his feet and went over to greet the Detective. "I'm Dr. Spencer Reid. Um, I guess you have lots of questions for me."

"Yeah… I do," She agreed.

"So, do you want to sit down?"

She nodded and grinned when he pulled out a chair for her. "Well… I don't believe it, chivalry isn't dead."

"I think you'll find that Dr. Reid is one of a kind." JJ advised the detective.

"JJ…" His face, which had been returning to it's normal pale tone was going scarlet again.

"I mean that as a compliment Spence."

He looked from one woman to the other and saw that they were laughing but not at him. He knew the difference by now.

"So JJ, are you going to let us talk or what?" He asked his friend a bit testily.

"You bet," She backed out of the room and shut the door.

Reid hurried back to join the detective at the table. He pulled out his chair, stepped around it and tripped. Luckily he fell into the chair and not onto the floor. What was it about pretty women and their ability to make him lose control of his long limbs? At least he hadn't landed on his butt on the floor. His face was going red again - he could feel it burning around the collar of his dress shirt.

"So what can you tell me about Katherine Duncan?" The detective asked. It looked like she was choosing to ignore his clumsiness.

"Um yeah… I ran into her at the library two weeks ago. We were reaching for the same book and…"

She listened while he gave her a complete accounting of every encounter with Katie and everything he'd learned from them.

"She never told you her last name or where she was living." Detective Markowitz prompted him after he fell silent.

Reid was playing with the edge of the file folder instead of looking at the detective. "No… She never told me anything about herself, or what was happening to her till today. She told me that 'he,' tried to kill her. She didn't tell me who 'he,' was or how he tried to kill her. I just assumed that it was domestic violence gone wrong and that she somehow got away from him.

"Well, you read the file." Det. Markowitz asked.

"Yeah, most of it, I know that she was a student at Georgetown. She was majoring in English Lit. She was a sophomore at the time she went missing and she was twenty one years old. You talked to all of her friends and her associates after her best friend reported her missing. You talked to all of her professors and the woman that owned the book store where she worked three times a week. She had a boyfriend and he was your first suspect because there were seven complaints made against him for domestic violence. Katie refused to press charges against him, and you believe he killed her and got rid of her body even though you were never able to get enough evidence for a warrant to search the apartment."

Det. Markowitz had been sitting leaning forward and listening intently to the way he dissected her case in a few short sentences. It was almost like he'd been on the case since the first day and it was a bit disconcerting.

"I'm impressed Dr. Reid. You know this case almost as well as I do."

He didn't look up at the acknowledgement so she decided to press ahead. "I'd like your professional opinion and your help on this from this point forward. I can get the necessary paperwork for Agent Jareau."

He looked up and the relief in his dark eyes was poorly disguised. "I'll call in the rest of the team."

--

Morgan, Hotch and Rossi followed JJ and Emily into the conference room where Reid was talking to Det. Markowitz. They took their places around the table and JJ deferred to Reid with a nod.

As most of the team already knew most of the story, so it was easy to catch up with what Det. Markowitz brought to the case.

"The first person we interviewed was Jonathon Zacharias. He'd been living with Ms. Duncan for six months. He was our primary suspect because of the history of abuse. Of course he claimed that he didn't know where she was. I grilled him about three hours, but he stood firm in his story. He claimed that he went out early on the morning of October 5th 2003. He said he went out for cigarettes and when he came back, she was gone along with all of her clothes and possessions. He didn't call the cops because he just assumed that she left him."

"He went out for cigarettes." Emily asked with a furrowed forehead. "Isn't that a bit of a lame excuse?"

"I thought so, but I couldn't break him."

"Reid, what is your impression of the young lady?" Rossi asked the genius as the young man stared down at the picture of Katherine Duncan.

"She's smart and she likes poetry."

Morgan smirked at the love sick tone in his partners face. Emily elbowed Morgan and he grinned at her while JJ glared at him.

"She seemed very nice, but I didn't see any bruises or injuries that would indicate that she was in an abusive relationship."

He pursed his lips together for a minute and looked at the space between where Rossi and Detective Markowitz sat next to each other. "She was very frightened the last time I saw her, but she really wanted my help. I'm sorry Hotch, I don't have anything else to tell you. She just didn't look like someone had been abusing her."

Hotch didn't excuse Reid, but he inclined his head slightly to the younger man and Reid relaxed a bit. It was his fault. He should have been profiling her instead of getting caught up her beauty and his burgeoning feelings for her.

"What about her family?" Emily asked.

"Her parents live in Philadelphia. Ms. Duncan has two brothers and they were hiking in the Appalachian Mountains the weekend she disappeared. Her father is a surgeon and her mother is a real estate agent. They all have solid alibis for the day she went missing. Her parents didn't hear from her. She didn't ask them for help, or even run to them, if she did run away. She had very little money in her bank account. I just don't think she ran away."

"She may have gone underground." Garcia piped up for the first time.

"That's a possibility. It could be the only reason that makes sense," Emily agreed.

"Garcia, do you still have contacts underground." Rossi asked her and her face went carefully neutral.

"Sir… I can't just call them up and ask if they've seen this girl." She said, but her eyes said that she could do just that.

"I'm not asking you to; just do what you can to contact anyone you still trust. We don't want to know how you do it."

"I'll do my best sir." She said and then she got up to leave the room for her beloved computers.

"I think we need to talk to Mr. Zacharias again." Rossi said.

"Is he still in the DC area?" Hotch asked the detective.

"Oh yeah… He's in the high security ward at Columbia Mental Health. He's tried to kill himself multiple times." She told the surprised group.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Disclaimer: see my profile**_

_**A/n here's the next chapter my friends... Enjoy **_

Hotch, Reid and Detective Markowitz pulled into the parking lot at Columbia Mental Health. The large, grey block building was both impressive, and intimidating. It reminded Reid of his old high school in Las Vegas. It had the same, small, evenly spaced windows and large metal doors at the very center of the front of the building. He shivered as goose bumps jumped out on his arms. The sky was blue, but white clouds lined with grey were gathering overhead.

They exited the truck and Reid pulled off his sunglasses. The wind was picking up and he noticed that all of them pulled their jackets tighter. It looked like there was going to be more rain after just a few days of sunshine.

The lobby of the hospital was functional and very depressing. The desk was old, wooden and pitted with age. The nurse was behind it was clad in a white uniform. Her dark hair was pulled up tightly under her matching white cap. She looked up from her computer, the most modern looking thing in the room, and addressed Hotch.

"Can I help you?" Her tone said there would be no nonsense tolerated.

Hotch withdrew his badge. "My name is Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner of the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit. This is Dr. Spencer Reid and Detective Rose Markowitz of the Washington DC Police. We'd like to see Jonathon Zacharias."

The nurse looked very surprised at this request and Reid wondered if Zacharias ever had visitors.

"I'll have to summon Dr. Charles." She told Hotch. "Please take a seat. He's with a patient and will be with you in a few minutes."

The three of them went to the excruciatingly uncomfortable looking chairs in the waiting area. They were plastic, cream colored, and very hard. The tile floor was grey and scratched with the traffic of the years. There was a metal table with old copies of AMA magazines and back dated copies of Readers Digest in orderly piles. In fact, the piles were so neat and tidy; Reid presumed that the nurse behind the counter would be displeased if he or anyone else touched them in any way.

Det. Markowitz caught him eyeing the magazines and then the desk. She smiled conspiratorially at him. "She does look pretty intimidating. She reminds me of the nurse at the clinic I used to go to as a child. She looks like the type that would disapprove of scrubs and colors in the workplace."

Reid gave her a nervous smile in reply. "Yeah… She's a bit scary." He agreed.

"I imagine she has a tough job." Hotch said but Reid thought there was some agreement in his unit chief's voice.

They chatted to each other about the hospital and its uninviting surroundings. The walls were the same grey as the tile on the floor. It was as though someone had gone to great lengths to make the place morbid and depressing. Reid wondered how anyone was supposed to make progress in dealing with whatever mental disorder they had in this place.

"This sanitarium was built fifty years ago. I don't think the designers cared about making the place live-able," Det. Markowitz said. "I'm surprised no one has updated the décor." She added.

"Actually, most of the state run institutions were built to house the insane and disturbed, not to try and "cure." them. It was felt that they didn't need the so-called comforts of home." Reid said.

"Doesn't sound like a place you'd want to be." Det. Markowitz replied.

Reid was saved from answering by the return of the nurse and a very tall, grey haired man with piercing brown eyes and bushy eyebrows that almost met over his forehead. His face was lined, but his body was lean and toned under the white coat he wore.

"I understand you're here to see Jonathon Zacharias." His voice boomed out to them and the nurse looked like she didn't approve of the noise in her quiet domain, but she didn't dare show it.

"Yes," Hotch stood and walked forward toward the doctor. "We'd like to question him about the disappearance of Katherine Duncan."

The doctor frowned. "I don't think you'll be able to get anything out of him."

"We can get a warrant if that's what you want." Hotch said.

"No… It's not that, I'm just saying that ever since Jonathon was brought, here he's been under supervision and sedation. He's not violent to others, but he has tried multiple times to kill himself."

"What's your diagnosis?" Reid spoke up.

The doctor looked a bit chagrined before answering the young doctor's inquiry. "I don't have one. Mostly he's just terrified and acting like he's feeling very guilty about something. As I said, he's been under medication, most of the time, he doesn't make any sense. For insurance purposes, I gave him the diagnosis of acute anxiety disorder."

"What does he say?" Reid probed.

"He talks about hearing voices, specifically one voice. He says it belongs to her, but he won't tell me her name. He's not schizophrenic in the true sense of the word. The voice he hears doesn't come from inside his head. He claims to hear the voice talking to him from the walls and the ceiling and the floor."

"We'd still like to try and talk to him," Hotch requested.

"I'll take you to his room."

They followed the doctor to the elevator and then up to the top floor. They walked through halls that were the same unrelieved gray tile and grey paint on the walls. There where doors at regular intervals along the hall, and the windows that Reid had noticed from the car, were on the opposite side from the doors. They were painted white and had small rectangular windows in the upper left hand corner.

The end of the hallway had a door like the others. The doctor unlocked it and opened the door. The room was small with padded walls and a small cot made from plastic at one corner of the room. A man - who looked as though he'd once been built like a line backer, but now had gone to seed - sat in one corner. He was facing the corner and mumbling under his breath.

"Johnny… the police and the FBI want to talk to you."

The man rocked back and forth in front of the wall, letting his forehead bang against the padding. "In the walls…" He said softly.

"Johnny… you need to focus." The doctor said. Zacharias ignored the doctor and continued to rock back and forth. "She wants… Into the walls, I have to…"

"Johnny!" The doctor said more firmly.

"Let me talk to him," Reid said as he stepped forward in the room.

"I don't think -"

"He's a great psychologist, let him try." Hotch interrupted.

The doctor shrugged and left the room. The detective and Hotch drew in closer to the patient and the doctor said. "I'm going to leave you alone." Seeing the look on Det. Markowitz's face, he said. "I told you he isn't a danger to anyone, only to himself."

He shut the door and Reid crouched next to Johnny. He had light blond hair that fell over his eyes. He was looking down at the padded floor of his cell and whispering under his breath.

"My name is Spencer Reid."

The man kept rocking back and forth and mumbling, but now it was a bit louder. "She tells me I have to… She says it's my fault… Her voice in the wall, always in the wall, it makes my head hurt."

"Who is she Johnny?" Reid asked the bigger man.

"She says I have to… have to… I don't want to talk… She always talks and talks and talks. Make the pain stop."

"It's okay… I'm just here to help," Reid said in a very soft voice.

"Go away… make the voice go away. I can't stand it. Please make it go away…"

He rocked faster, and faster, and began to keen like a wild and trapped animal. "I don't want to hear her… Make it go away… She won't go away."

Suddenly he opened his eyes and straightened up. He looked at Reid and his eyes were almost black. They stared directly at him and he said in a completely clear voice. "It's my fault!"

"What's your fault?" Reid asked.

"It's my fault. I killed her!"

Chills ran up Reid's spine despite the fact that he believed that he had heard it all in his job. "Who did you kill?"

**"I killed her… She talks to me from the walls and tells me that I killed her. She says I have to die. In pace requiescat… In pace requiescat…"**

He was shouting and hitting his forehead with his hand. Hotch pulled on Reid's arm and the young man got to his feet. Hotch and the other's left the room just as the doctor and the nurse came into the room. They stayed out of the way and watched the doctor hold Johnny while the nurse injected something into the big mans vein. In no time he was lying on the padded floor looking at the wall.

"I'm sorry… I thought he was calmer today." The doctor apologized. "I'm also sorry you weren't able to question him."

"He confessed to killing someone." Reid said.

"Yes… he's said that before, but we can't get any details out of him about the crime or this woman he thinks talks to him. He just acts like he's terrified all the time."

Hotch thanked the doctor and the group headed back down to the first floor and out of the door. The minute Reid stepped out of the door behind Det. Markowitz, rain began to fall. They hurried through the big drops splattering on the pavement and got into the SUV.

"Sorry that he didn't make any sense," Det. Markowitz said as soon as they were seated and Hotch started the truck.

"I think we found out quite a lot." Reid said.

"Oh yeah…"

"Yeah… I mean we know that he didn't kill Katie. She's alive and well. She touched me, she talked to me, and I could smell her perfume."

"Then who does he believe he killed?" Det. Markowitz asked.

"I don't know…"

Hotch was looking at him in the rearview mirror. "Reid… I know that look and that tone. What are you coming to?"

"It's just something he said and the way he was talking. I've heard it somewhere, but I can't think of it."

"You'll work it out. You've never let us down."

Reid tried to smile for his boss, but the feeling that there was something he couldn't remember wasn't making it easy to pull out of his memory. It was something that he'd read rather then heard, so it should be easy.

He looked out the window as they drove away from the hospital. The rain was coming down harder, running down the windows like painting dripping down a freshly painted wall. Then he remembered where he'd read the passage. It was so simple.

"Hotch… I think I know what Johnny said that was bothering me."


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: see my profile

The team gathered in the conference room as soon as Hotch, Reid and Detective Markowitz returned from Columbia Mental Health. Reid was pacing the room when Garcia trailed in behind Emily and JJ. He was muttering under his breath and Hotch had to go tap him on the shoulder to get his attention back on the group.

"Reid…" He said firmly and the young man looked up with eyes that were just on this side of wild.

"Oh yeah…" He sat down next to Emily and began to tell the others what Jonathon Zacharias had said and done.

"… So I remembered that I had read the Latin phrase somewhere in a book. I was sure that I hadn't heard, but I couldn't remember where I read it. I knew that it wasn't something my mom read to me or –"

"Get to the point man." Morgan interrupted good-naturedly.

Reid glared at this friend and Morgan smiled back. "What I'm trying to say is that because of the reference to the voice in the wall and the Latin made me think about a story by Edgar Allen Poe I read when I was eight."

"You read Poe when you were eight," Morgan sounded a bit incredulous. "Weren't you scared," He teased in a mock serious tone while leaning forward on his elbows.

"No…" Reid said a bit too loudly and quickly to be believed.

He wasn't about to admit to the chills that had run up his spine the first time he'd read "The Raven," or the palpable sense of horror in his stomach, left by the "Cask of Amontillado," or the sense of adventure he'd experienced when reading "The Gold Bug."

"I read "The Cask of Amontillado," and basically it's about this man called Montressor, who has a feud with a man called Fortunado, and he lures this man to his house during Carnival under the pretext of tasting this rare wine he's supposedly come across and has stored in his underground vaults."

"While we're young," Morgan interrupted again.

"Fine… he gets his revenge by walling up Fortunado alive in the catacombs. "In pace requiescat" is Latin for rest in peace. It's the last line of the story."

They were all very quiet for a minute till Garcia spoke up. "Sounds spooky, I like spooky," She said.

"Mama, you scare me when you talk like that." Morgan retorted. "Why am I just finding out about this side of you now?"

"A lady needs her mystery."

"Focus please," Hotch interrupted sternly.

"So what are we saying? That Zacharias walled up someone alive and the guilt is driving him insane." Detective Markowitz asked sounding very skeptical.

"Yes," Reid said. "Or the better assumption is that he killed someone and hid them in a wall. The person didn't have to be alive, and if the wall was brick and mortar, he could have concealed a body with no one being the wiser."

"But who did he kill?" Detective Markowitz was sounding confused and impatient.

"Not Katie, she's real enough, I've seen her, she touched my cheek and I could smell her perfume."

Morgan snorted at this and Reid glared at him. "Not now Morgan," He said through gritted teeth.

"Just because you could touch her doesn't mean she isn't dead. She could be a ghost that's trying to communicate with you and get you to solve her murder. She might not even know she's dead. Sometimes the dead don't move on if they have unfinished business or they don't know they have died. Sometimes they –"

"Garcia…" Hotch interrupted.

"Sorry sir, too much "Ghost Hunters," She admitted with a sheepish smile.

"Aren't ghosts supposed to haunt a place, not a person," Morgan asked.

"Actually, there are many accounts of people being haunted by sprits that follow them wherever they go." Reid added helpfully in a squeaky tone, and was rewarded with a glare from Hotch.

"Sorry Hotch," He said.

"Let's assume Katie is among the living. She might be hiding because she's still afraid of Zacharias even though he's locked up."

"But why the games, why not come forward and accept protection," Rossi asked.

"Maybe she doesn't want him to find out she's alive. Maybe she doesn't believe that we can protect her." Garcia said.

"She seemed to seek out Reid." Rossi reminded them. "Did she know you're an FBI agent, or did she just happen to run into you," He asked with the air of someone that doesn't believe in accidents.

"Um… I don't think she knew. She seemed surprised when I told her."

"Then the best thing to do is assume it was a coincidence and leave it at that," Hotch said.

"We could use it to our advantage in trying to find her." Detective Markowitz proposed.

"You mean stake out the library." Reid asked doubtfully.

"It worked for you once." Morgan reminded him and Reid blushed at the memory of his crash-and-burn with Katie.

"That doesn't mean that if I go there she'll show up too." He protested, but the protest was a token one. He wanted badly to see her again and this was the perfect opportunity.

"Then it's settled," Rossi interrupted.

"Garcia, did you find anything in your search." Hotch asked.

Garcia's face went carefully neutral and she peered out at the window over Rossi's shoulder that looked out over the bull pen.

"No sir, if she's been underground all this time, I can't find any trace."

"Okay, it's getting late, let's quit for the night. We'll pick up in the morning." Hotch told the team.

Reid stole a look at his watch and saw that it was after eight pm. He was hungry, and tired, and frustrated by the road blocks in this case. They had a victim that wouldn't co-operate, no evidence of a crime and their only viable suspect was in an insane asylum.

"You want to go get something to eat with us." Morgan's voice broke through his thoughts.

He looked up to see Emily, JJ Garcia and Morgan standing together. They were all looking at him like they were afraid he would disappear if they let him out of their sight.

"No… got to get home and decorate." He said throwing out the first excuse that came to his mind.

"Decorate for what?" Morgan was asking him.

"Halloween, of course," He answered.

"Aren't you a little behind," Emily asked. "I mean you're usually boring us to tears about your favorite holiday by now."

"Yeah… I wondered what was different about you this year," JJ agreed. She took his arm and pulled him out the door so he couldn't escape.

He decided that fighting with them was worse than just going along, so he let her drag him with her to the elevator and down to the garage.

Reid parked his car in the driveway and got out into rain. It was still pouring after six hours and he was beginning to feel mildewed. He put up his umbrella and went around to the other side of the car to grab his messenger bag out of the passenger side of his ancient Volvo. It was cold and he shivered under his favorite dark brown corduroy jacket.

He headed to the front door, his mind full of thoughts about putting up his Halloween decorations. It was good to have something else to think about besides Katie and her mysterious behavior.

It was late, but he didn't want to wake up without a pumpkin carved for the next night. Then there were lights to hang inside as it was to rainy and dark outside. Also he needed to put up a few…

"Hello," a voice said out of the darkness when he reached the tiny porch.

He jumped and almost fell off the top step leading to his door. She stepped out of the darkness under the overhang and his heart skipped a beat. It began to thud painfully in his chest when he realized that their plans to stake out the library had gone to hell. How did she know where to find him? He knew he'd never told her and he'd never brought her here either. How did she know?

"How did you find me?" He asked in a tone that was much harsher than he intended.

He should have found seeing her hard work in the darkness and the rain, but his eyes must have adapted to the poor conditions because he could see the upset on her face.

"I'm sorry, I was surprised," He found his mouth moving to say words that he didn't want to say because he didn't want to be in the middle of this anymore.

_Whatever happened to attempting to have a normal life?_

He shook the thought away and unlocked the door. She followed him silently through the door and he had to lean past her to key the code to the alarm. The scent of lilacs rushed over him again and he got light headed.

_Stop it! Remember you're mad at her._

Except… He couldn't think of a good reason to be mad at her anymore. She was there and now was his opportunity to find out why she wouldn't be honest with him.

"W-would you l-like s-something to drink?"

_Oh God… He was stuttering and she hadn't been there five minutes!_

"No…" She said very softly.

"Would you like to sit down?"

She nodded and he led the way to his living room. She sat on the battered couch and he perched on the equally battered chair. Why hadn't he taken the time to get new furniture like he'd planned for the last year?

"I'm sorry I keep running away Spencer. It's really hard for me to trust people."

He listened to her musical voice and didn't interrupt. "I've been hiding and trying to deny the truth, but I realized that I couldn't do that anymore. I like you a lot Spencer and I don't want to hide anymore."

"It's okay, you can tell me everything and then my team will find you a place to stay that will be safe."

She looked up at him with blue eyes that were full of tears. She pulled her white sweater closer around her shoulders and her turquoise ring seemed to gleam in the light of the lamp he'd turned on.

"You can't help me now. You see, I've been waiting for you. I know that now. Now that you're here, I have to go."

"But," He was so confused. "You don't have to leave. You can stay here. You can sleep in my room."

She stared at him and his face went hot. "I m-mean you c-can sleep in my r-room and I'll s-stay on the c-couch.

_Nice one Spencer, now she'll trust you!_

"You're so nice, nicer than anyone has been in a long time, but I can't stay here."

"Please… my team and I can help you. Jonathon Zacharias is locked away. He can't hurt you anymore. I promise."

"I know he can't," She agreed.

"But I don't understand… If you know…"

"I know it now. I told you that I've been waiting for you. I can go now."

There was something in her eyes that Reid didn't like so he didn't look her in the face. Instead he concentrated on the watch he wore around the cuff of his light grey cardigan.

"I don't understand…" He repeated hoping she would say something to enlighten him.

"I know… I have to show you all of it."

He looked up and she was standing right in front of him. Her hand reached out for his face and suddenly he was falling into darkness.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Disclaimer: See my profile**_

_**A/n hey all, here is the next chapter. Only an epilogue to follow this chapter and then it's over. Thanks for all your kind reviews and personal messages** _

_Reid opened his eyes to blinding, golden -white light. It was like the after image of a flash from a camera, only it didn't dissipate. He blinked his eyes, feeling them water as he tried to look around. He was on his feet instead of lying on the floor, which he assumed was a good thing. _

_"Katie…"_

_She screamed and he looked wildly around. His eyes were beginning to adjust a little to the bright cold light. She screamed again and there the sound - oh god he knew that sound - of a fist slamming into flesh. _

_"Fucking little bitch…"_

_"Please…"_

_Her voice was hoarse and weak. She was crying when he finally saw her in the corner of this unfamiliar room. There was a poster on the wall right next to her for a rock group called Queens Reich and to her left was a fire place in the middle of the room. The room was built of red brick with cream colored mortar. Worst of all was the large man he recognized from the insane asylum. He punched Katie in the stomach and she doubled over, gasping and crying. _

_"Stop it…" Reid shouted, trying to move, but something held his feet to the ground. _

_They didn't seem to hear him. He watched the man hit her again, this time a fist to her face. Her nose bled red blood that was nauseating in this intense golden light. _

_"Leave her alone Zacharias, please." He shouted and a terrible sense of foreboding swept over him._

_Chose which one will die!_

_Oh God, not Raphael. Not now, go away. I won't listen to you._

_His heart had begun to bang in his chest so hard; he thought it might burst out of the confines of his ribs. Katie screamed again and again he tried to move, but his feet wouldn't cooperate. _

_Zacharias was hitting her again. There was blood everywhere and her eyes were blackening. She was crying steadily. The man was like some wild animal. He was shouting at her calling her terrible names and accusing her of faithlessness._

_"You fucking bitch. I saw you talking to him. I told you not to leave this apartment. You know what happens to little girls that don't do what they're told."_

_"I'm sorry Johnny. I didn't mean to -"_

_The man slammed his fist into her abdomen and she fell to the floor coughing and gagging. "Johnny…" She cried. _

_"Show you whose boss here!"_

_Reid realized that tears were falling down his face as the terrible paralysis continued to force him to stand there and watch. The feeling that he knew what was going to happen next intensified one hundred times and his hand were shaking with rage. _

_"Johnny…"_

_"Shut up bitch… I told you to stay here and now I'll show you why you'll never defy me again."_

_"Stop…" Reid shouted at the man. "Please stop this." He searched frantically for his gun, but it wasn't at his hip. His cell and badge were gone too. Oh God… what was happening? The harsh and cold golden light picked up the red blood on the floor and on her delicate white skin._

_It was no use; there was nothing he could do. The memory of absolute terror and hopelessness when Tobias had killed that couple over the internet connection that he'd chosen was nothing too compared to this. It was horrific beyond anything he ever seen. _

_Zacharias pulled her to the floor and raped her while Reid screamed at him to stop. Katie was screaming and trying to fight him off, but there were so many wounds and she was weak. _

_Reid screamed at fate, or God, or destiny, why was this happening to him when he couldn't stop it? Zacharias was like someone possessed. He stood, zipped his pants and walked away from Katie. Reid saw that she was staring at the ceiling with her large dark eyes that were completely blank. She didn't try to get up and run when Zacharias left the room._

_"Katie…" Reid choked out "Katie, can you hear me. It's Spencer. You have to get up now. I can't help you. I can't move. You have to get up and…"_

_Zacharias was back. He didn't look in Spencer's direction. Reid was beginning to realize through the haze of panic that was making his blood run cold that neither of them could hear, nor see him. It was some kind of crazy dream. He must be asleep and his nightmares were back. It was just a nightmare._

_Zacharias knelt down next to Katie and Reid screamed when the man swung the hammer in his hand. It fell and Reid couldn't flinch away like it was a horror movie. Blood hit the wall and Zacharias and it was crimson in the bright light. The hammer rose and fell, and rose and fell so many times he lost count. Blood was everywhere and Reid wanted to vomit. The bile burned his throat and stomach, his legs wanted to dump him to the floor but somehow he stayed upright. She was dead, he knew that now. She'd always been dead. It wasn't a dream. She was showing him how it happened. He was sobbing wildly at her loss and for the loss of love that wasn't meant to be. _

_He watched Zacharias leave again and then come back with several tools, including a sledge hammer. Reid watched him knock a whole in the wall large enough for Katie's body. He wrestled her inside and he threw in the blood stained hammer. _

_God… He wanted to wake up, for this to be over, but he didn't wake up. He was still crying softly as the man bricked up the girl inside the wall. The job was neat and professional and no one would suspect the truth. How had the police missed this? How was it that they hadn't searched for blood or other body fluids there? How had no one heard him taking down the wall? _

He opened his eyes and he was lying on the floor of his living room. The harsh golden light was gone and in its place was the soft glow of his lamp. The scream died in his throat as he looked around. He was alone. Tears were still damp on his face as though he'd been crying in his sleep.

"Katie…"

Where was she? She didn't answer his calls as he lay there trying to make his dazed and confused brain work. He was on the floor in front of his couch and apparently alone.

"Katie…" He called again but there was only the slight ticking of the clock on the wall in the silent room. He got slowly to his feet, expecting the foot Charles had broken to ache, but it didn't, he was fine. Except his heart felt ripped out of his chest. He drew in a deep breath and wiped away the smeared tears on his cheeks.

He went methodically through all of his rooms. Katie wasn't there. She was gone. She'd never been there. Was the whole thing an elaborate hallucination? Had the last few weeks been the beginning of psychotic break?

"Spencer…"

Her voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. He didn't want to listen to it. If he ignored it, she would fade like his nightmares and he could go on with his life. Then she just materialized in front of him with a golden glow all around her. He stepped back tripped and landed on the edge of the sofa.

"Katie…"

"You're not going crazy Spencer. I'm sorry that I scared you and that I couldn't tell you when we first met. You probably wouldn't have believed me anyway."

"I don't know what you mean." He said, but he believed that he did know what she meant.

"I'm dead… I didn't know it till I met you. I guess I needed someone to find my killer for me. I've been stuck here, not knowing I was dead and should move on. I thought everything was the same as it was when I died."

He couldn't believe that she wasn't a figment of his imagination, but somehow he knew what she said was true.

"I don't understand…" Reid's head was reeling.

"I know… I'm not very sure of what happened. I just know that there was something about you that drew me to you in the library that day. I don't know how it's different now, but I see something that I didn't see the first time we met."

She looked puzzled and he wanted to laugh. Were ghosts supposed to be confused? He guessed they must be if she didn't know that she was dead all these years. He felt like he'd landed in a horror movie or something. His head was reeling, but there was a part of him that believed everything. It was outside the realm of intelligence that had driven him his whole life. He used that intelligence to try to explain the world around him. Maybe there was more to it then what science could explain.

"I don't know what the difference could be." He said slowly.

She seemed to study him as she stood in front of him and he noticed that her feet weren't quite touching the ground. Something else slipped inside him and suddenly he believed in all of it.

"You've seen the other side." The apparition said with absolute conviction. "You were dead once, weren't you?"

"Y-yes…" He said hesitantly, but the expected pain of memories didn't come. "Yes, but only for a couple of minutes. I was brought back with CPR."

"Then that must be the connection."

"Yeah…" Oddly, he felt disappointed by this revelation.

"Thank you Spencer…" She said and her musical voice pulled her eyes back to her face.

"For what," He was very confused.

"For helping me… You're a very sweet and kind man. I'm glad the connection, what ever it was, brought us together."

"Me too," He whispered.

She looked so sad he thought, and then she said. "I wish…"

"Me too," He repeated.

"Good-bye Spencer Reid."

And she was gone, vanished like mist before the sun. He sat on the couch for a long time staring at the place where she's stood in the warm golden glow. If he didn't move, then maybe she would come back.

The clock on his wall suddenly struck twelve times. He jumped in surprise to realize that it was midnight and officially Halloween. Well, he was never going to look at the holiday in quite the same way again.

He reached into his pocket for his phone. He had to call Hotch, but would his boss believe his story.

The dawn was cold and grey. Reid could see his breath while he and Hotch walked to the front door of the home on the corner of Elm and Cedar. Jonathon Zacharias and Katherine Duncan had rented the house from a man that lived and worked in DC. He was there waiting for them to arrive.

They explained what they wanted to do and the man readily agreed. "I'm glad you're here." He said happily.

He was rather fat and several inches shorter then Hotch and Reid. He was balding and what was left of his hair was light grey shot through with gray. He wore old jeans and a dark blue sweat shirt under a light brown over coat.

He followed them into the house, talking enthusiastically about the ghost or whatever it was that kept scaring away his tenants.

"It got so bad, I decided to sell the property and cut my losses."

Hotch thanked the man and had an office that accompanied them steer the man back outside so they could do their work. The CSIs and Detective Markowitz, who'd just arrived, got to work.

"You don't have to do this." Hotch said very quietly to Reid.

"Yes I do Hotch… Someone has to stand up for her."

Reid could feel his boss watching him, looking for signs of weakness. He supposed he didn't blame the older agent. So much had happened in two weeks to him that anyone might think he was losing it.

He watched the whole process, how the CSIs found blood on the walls and the floors despite the passage of five years. The glow of the Luminal in the darkened room made his stomach do flip-flops, and he had to swallow hard against the bile that wanted to leave his stomach. It was worse then the vision or dream he'd had. It was worse then he could imagine, even after everything he's seen the last five years.

The techs took apart the wall and when they found the skeletal arm poking through the tattered remains of a stained sweater with pink flowers, he turned and fled the room. Then he did something he hadn't done since the first case he worked at the BAU, he vomited in the dead bushes next to the house.

The rain had begun again when the CSIs brought out the black body bag on the stretcher. The ME followed it to the city hearse and supervised loading it into the back. The press had begun to arrive and so had JJ. She had hugged him as tight as she could with her growing baby belly.

"Are you okay?"

He couldn't speak as the acid taste of losing the small breakfast he'd lost, burned his throat. Tears threatened and talking to JJ would bring them to the surface. He shook his head and she kissed his cheek.

"That was a very stupid question I know. You don't have to say anything."

"Thanks JJ…" He croaked out to her.

"Get some rest today." She ordered in a soft voice.

"I will, Hotch told me to take the rest of the day off."

"Good," She said and he could see the worry in her large doe eyes.

"Don't worry about me." He said indicating her baby bump. "Remember you're supposed to be avoiding stress."

"I can't help it Spence, you're still my friend."

"Thanks, you don't know how much I needed to hear that today."

"Go home," she gently shoved him in the direction of the SUV he'd come in with Hotch. "I'm going to go handle the jackals over there." She indicated her "friends," in the press.

His apartment looked the same as when he left it. There was no one there to greet him when he opened the door and dropped his bag by the table in the entryway. He looked around trying to see if the place looked different. It didn't, it was the same.

"Katie…" He called out softly, but she was gone. Only the faint scent of lilacs remained behind.

He went to his bedroom, and pulled off the work clothes he'd been wearing since the day before, and changed into a Star Trek Convention tee-shirt and black sweats. He climbed into bed and surprised himself by falling straight to sleep.

For the first time in years, Halloween was forgotten by the young agent.


	11. Epilogue

_**Disclaimer: see my profile**_

_**A/n hello all, here is the last chapter. Kudos to my excellent beta REIDFANATIC for keeping me honest and helping to fix my endless grammer and spelling mistakes. Kudos to all of my faithful readers who let me take this flight of fancy into the supernatural for the holiday. I hope you all liked reading it as much as I loved writing it. **_

_**Epilogue**_

Reid perched on a chair in Garcia's office. She was sitting on the floor with her upper body under the desk. He was in charge of tools for her today and would hand her want ever she wanted. It was Friday and two weeks had passed since the discovery of the body in the old house.

_The body… It's not just 'the body,' it was Katie._

That was true. The DNA results had come back that very day, and all the hope that it had all been a mistake or a bad dream was gone. Katherine Duncan was dead and had been dead for five years.

"Hey Reid… I asked you for those pliers three times." Garcia's concerned and annoyed face looked up from her upgrades to her babies.

"Sorry…" He said morosely and handed her the tool in question.

"Ok… you've been moping around for the last two weeks. I know what happened at Halloween was terrible for you, but you have to let her go. You helped her finish what she needed to do. I know it was hard for you to watch her move on, baby cakes. I 'm so sorry you had to go through that." She gave him a sunny smile before continuing her gentle lecture.

"The cops found what they need to nail Zacharias on her murder. He's going to a cell instead of a cushy mental health hospital. He deserves to rot in hell."

"I know that Garcia… That's not what's bothering me."

"Then tell me what is bothering you, sweet cheeks."

"I just don't understand why she chose me. There were lots of other people that could have helped her sooner, like Detective Markowitz."

Garcia snorted impatiently. "I keep telling you that you're a great guy. You're kind, gentle and sweet. You have enormous empathy and sensitivity to people in pain. She must have been drawn to that."

Reid didn't say anything, because what did you say to something like that? Sure he was a nice guy, but didn't nice guys always finish last?

"Stop moping and look on the bright side." Garcia poked him in the leg with her screwdriver.

"What bright side is that?" He asked sarcastically.

"At least you helped a poor, stranded soul, crossover."

"Not funny Garcia…"

"I wasn't trying to be funny. You did a good thing. Just like you always do." She stood up wiped her forehead and then leaned down to kiss the top of his head. "Now… I'm done here, so get out of my way handsome!"

He got out of his chair and walked to the door. Her voice stopped him as he reached for the door knob.

"There's nothing wrong you, doll face. You're special… That's why extraordinary things happen to you.

--

He stared out at the grey building from his car. He was parked in the very same spot he'd used a month ago. It was raining again. He didn't shut off the ignition this time, but sat listening to the heat pushing through the vents in the dashboard. The warmth didn't penetrate the cold around his heart, the cold that had been there since Halloween. He watched the windshield wipers dash back and forth across the glass, clearing the rain as it beaded up endlessly. The building wavered in the sheeting rain as though it didn't belong there, but in some other time or place.

"Where ghosts walk," He said softly.

He opened the door and pulled the hood of his raincoat over his head. He left his messenger bag in the front seat and hurried across the parking lot to the stairs that led up to the door. He climbed them slowly, feeling the raindrops smack the top of his hood.

He wasn't sure what he expected when he opened the door, perhaps the entrance to a gothic castle where Dracula laid, or a secret lab where Dr. Frankenstein created his monster, instead it was just the library. The relief was so enormous, that he almost fainted where he stood.

The lights were welcoming yellow and the room was warm. He pulled off the hood and walked past the check out desk. Mrs. Warren wasn't there. He supposed even librarians took days off. Laughter tried to well up and burst past his lips. He held it back and passed the desk.

The shelves of books were shadowed as they had been a month ago. He passed two teenage girls giggling over the latest vampire romance. A very old man passed him in the non-fiction aisle. The man was white haired and walked with a cane, but his back was straight as a soldier on parade. He ignored Reid just like everyone else.

He wandered up and down the rows of books, avoiding the poetry section for half an hour. He went to the back of the building and found a chair to sit and watch the rain fall. Several people passed him, deep in their own concerns and he didn't look up.

The rain couldn't hold his attention for long though. With a heavy sigh of frustration and the air of a man headed to the gas chamber he went to the row of books where he'd first seen her. It was empty, just like it had been that day.

_The book won't be there, and when it's not, I'll go home._

The book was there, as he had known it would be. He reached for it and nothing happened. He plucked it out of its spot and nothing happened. He opened it and a voice said.

"Excuse me, but is there another copy of that book."

He almost dropped the book because with the voice came the scent of lilacs close to his elbow. He whipped around in shock, but it wasn't Katie. The woman was medium height, a bit plump, with light brown hair and green eyes. She wore gold rimmed glasses and a light blue sweater with jeans. She was looking at him very warily, as though he were dangerous. He could see she was deciding whether or not to leave, so he made a show of looking at the title then handing it to her.

"Is this the one you want?"

"Yeah… but you got it first." She said politely.

"I don't think there's a library rule that says the first one to touch a book, gets to check it out."

She smiled at his tone and said, "Sure there is, it's written in the rule book."

"I've never seen this rule book."

"It's very secret…" She whispered as though they shared a great secret. "I'm Jackie," She said.

"Oh… my name is Spencer, um Spencer Reid."

"Well… Spencer Reid, I see you like Elizabeth Barrett Browning…"


End file.
